If you're migrating a route over: You can contact me to have me import your route over if you have a list of members and links to their profile available. After creating a new route, your route won't be immediately listed on the routes list. If you want it to appear there, please drop me a mail.

We've been testing and migrating HRRs to the new system, so for now all routes you see are HRRs, but in the future we hope that every route will use this to manage their players. Please post any feedback, ideas, complaints, bugs you encounter, etc. here. Thanks!

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Set by step guide to creating your own route:

1. Take a look at the other routes on site. We try not to have two routes with the same theme/resources, so don't duplicate an existing route
2. Go to the create route page. You'll need to enter in a name for your route as well as a description. Please keep the description short and sweet.
3. If you're operating a resource route, enter in the minimum resource requirement for your members to meet before they can join the route. If you have other kinds of requirements (eg. machines), enter them into the route description
4. Decide on which signpost you want your members to use. Remember than 1 and 5 (last) are taken by Serious Routes and HRRs, so you might want to chose something else instead.
5. If you want to limit the number of people who want to join, enter a maximum player number. If you want to keep the route private and manage signups using, say, a group or a thread on the forum, enter zero.
6. If your route belong to an existing route group, choose the group from the dropdown menu.
7. Hit submit to create your route
8. If your group already has members, you can add them to the route using the "Edit Player" button on the bottom right hand corner. If your route is long, and you have kept a list of names of players along with links to their profile, contact me so that I can import the list instead of having you to enter in each name manually.
9. At this point, your route will not be listed on the main routes page or the homepage yet (Anybody with the URL can still visit it). If you want it to be listed, please drop me a message through IM or mail.

And of course, if you have any problem please do not hesitate to contact me to ask for help.

Some extra information:

If you're interested in playing around with the raw data, a dump of the database is made every 6 hours and is available here: resources.grelca.com/data/.

If you want to see what it's like to be on a route without actually been on a route, try joining the Testing Testing route, which was used to test the joining up process. There is no resource requirement, and you can always switch your second signpost away after joining.

If you want to create an invite-only group, you can try setting the maximum number of players on the route to zero. This means that you will need to add each new player manually though.

There's a way to see the teleport face of any player in the database. See if you can find out how ;)

Replies

being compelled to use a specific outside resource (and participate in it) to continue to take part in a group / community aspect of Glitch is a sustainable way forward.

If you want to use non-game resources, ie resources put together by people who are not TS staff, then it should not be surprising when the developers of those resources find better places to manage them than within the TS web pages.

No one is compelling you to use the routes. All the resources available on the routes are also available without leaving the TS website.

No one is compelling you to leave the TS website. It is your own choice to make rules about what websites you will and won't visit. But to join a group, and then impose your own rules on that group (everything in the group must be accessible without leaving the TS website) seems unusual.

I don't participate in this group or make use of its resources. But I find it strange that a few people feel that merely belonging to the group gives them sufficient influence to make the group leaders continue to use inadequate tools and keep them up-to-date, just because they have a personal, self-imposed rule that won't let them leave the TS website.

@WindBorn - when I joined resource routes, I did not agree to join an outside webspace. I joined a Group within Glitch. The 'new Directory' imposes new rules on the players who use / provide the routes, requirements that aren't actually a party to the game itself. These were not part of the resource routes initially, and you can't opt out without opting out of the route you joined.

All the resources available on the routes are also available without leaving the TS website
Not true. As pointed out... the links re-direct you. You are being taken to visit an outside website.

If you want to use non-game resources, ie resources put together by people who are not TS staff, then it should not be surprising when the developers of those resources find better places to manage them than within the TS web pages.
I want to continue to use the game resources (Forums, Groups) to play the game. I don't want to use non-game / player resources (websites, wiki's, apps) to regain functionality that was built by players using game resources.

You do raise a fair point though. Scarlet and Boom didn't 'develop' the HRR's, they created a group to put the pieces together. The routes are actually curated by a number of different people. But because they built a shiny tool, I guess they own the HRR's and get to decide how people can access them. So I guess it's okay that the HRR's (routing and info) have been re-directed to resources.grelca.com/

@Windborn, it's really not about creating influence, it's stating our opinions (which is what these forums are for).

I was thinking about it again before I read your post when I realised actually the HRR routes are nothing to do with TS I chilled out about it. To be fare it was the same for me on Facebook and farmville. I steered away from all of those 'player created' sites and stuck to playing the game from within the game. It's just how I roll. I'm going to make my own list as I do my travels from within glitch : ) Like a road map which I may even draw! Been some time but I'm in the mood to exercise my artistic talents.

I did participate in the group and I still do use the resources : )

@Wandering Confusion, thanks for the tip : ) I've already figured out the main for Gas (thanks also to Liza for the offer!) I'll pop over to top up with you too : )

Wandering Confusion, you have a lot of really good points. Although I don't agree with many of them, they are valid concerns and I understand them.

I just wanted to point out, though, that you did actually agree to have your information listed on outside sites, whether or not you are part of any routes, implicitly, by starting an account on Glitch. The Glitch API has allowed for this since its inception, and your information has been available through Glitch HQ for months now. It is inherent in the construction of the game, and I will wager that it is even mentioned in the Terms of Service. And if it is not, it should be.

This is part of the game you are playing, and any number of tools may be invented in the future that may cause this kind of problem for you.

I think you should consider posting an idea in the Ideas forum regarding a solution to this more general problem, if it continues to bother you!

@Carl... until this point I've generally seen a confirmation screen anytime my data is being accessed externally by the API. As in permission granted to the application / external site for the API to publish. So if that bit of using the API has changed, then yes I agree the ToS needs revisited.

What you can find about the API on the Accounts page is:View the applications you have authorized for use with Glitch's API.
"API" stands for "Application Programming Interface", and it is used by third-party developers to create software which lets you use Glitch in ways you otherwise could not.Because the Directory is a link to an outside page, it by-passes this authorization.
As noted: opting out of the information exchange grelca.com also opts you out of being a member of a HRR. So aside from the annoyance of having to fish around for what was once ready info... if I don't wanting to participate in an external database that I never agreed to, I can't maintain my route membership in-game.

ETA: Glitch HQ is a TS supported effort and you have to download it, plus grant permission.

ETA2: From the ToS www.glitch.com/terms/"We may provide you with access to the Glitch Application Programming Interfaces and associated tools and documentation (including all updates and other modifications thereto, the "API"). If you are granted API access, this section applies to you... You agree to secure clear, express consent from the Glitch user granting you permission to access such user's Glitch account, including, if applicable, retrieving user-specific information or writing information to such user's Glitch account. You will comply with the scope of express consent granted to you when accessing such user's Glitch account."

Yes, but that information is available to the developer utilizing the API regardless of whether you authorize their particular application for use. Since your account information is already within the API. I just wanted to clarify that.

Note, however, you must be logged into that site to see any specific information about any Glitchen or their streets. And you can only log in by verifying that you have a Glitch account. Now, it can be found that you are part of a route, without being logged in, but that's it. All other information available there is also easily found on the Glitch site when logged in. Without being friends, I can still go to your profile page and learn how far you have progressed in the game and what your street looks like. Furthermore, any links on that site to information pertaining to a specific Glitch lead back to their profile pages here on Glitch.com. So there really isn't much privacy at stake here.

I can still see where this wrinkle in the usual security measures would still bother you, so it may be a good thing to put on the to do list for improving the resources site.

I LOVE the thing, myself. But I would also love to learn the Devs' reaction to this.

I just ran a test. I am not currantly friends with Wandering Confusion. So, I logged into the resources app and did a search for Wandering Confusion with the "search for a Glitch" function. I was not allowed to find his information or pull it up.

I was, however, able to pull up Cephalophoria, who I am also not a friend of.

I am not sure what this means. Except that Wandering Confusion is not visible to me through that site.

I didn't log in, and after reading your post Carl, I could find WC with no problem from outside the site. I can see the list of her resources, the links to her glitch pages, the people she has on her signpost and the people who have her on their signpost. I can also see that she is on one of the resource routes. It was last updated 140 minutes ago. Maybe it acts differently if you log in, but if you don't you can see a lot of info on the player (though granted a good portion of it is also available on google). (And I just tried logging in, and I can see the same info when I log in as when I search the directory without being logged in).

I'm VERY confused by the new site. It doesn't show nearly as many members as we have listed in the route threads that I belong to and it says the requirements are different than were posted in the groups previously. Have the requirements changed? Do those of us currently on routes need to either update our resources or leave them?Are we not on the routes we belonged to before and/or must we now "rejoin" via the website?

Well, I have posted my question in the route thread that shows the largest discrepancy. I suppose it might be that our curator hasn't updated the site with the route info. Since the website requires more resources than I have on my street I will wait to see what the curator says before joining on the website.

Just to clarify, signing into the site does not change what information you see. You will gain a button that allows you to update your profile on the site, and the option to create and join routes, as well as a shortcut to your profile on the site at the top. If your information wasn't in the database previously you'll also be added in.

this site is great! thank you so much for all of your time and effort and hard work!

It finally gave me the push to just get on with it and pick a route already!! (i chose the herb garden route!)

Thanks again for this helpful and convenient resource.

xox

ETA: is there a way that on each route page there could be a shortcut on the side to the player who has the MOST of whatever resource they are sharing? in other words, on the pb&j route, a link to the person who has the most jellies on their street and/or the most peat bogs. that way if someone wanted to just quickly visit one or two streets and get the most bang for their buck...this would be the easiest way to do that. just a thought!

I'm digging into it now and I'm having problems with the "Visit this route" button. It submits and reloads the page but doesn't do anything. I'm on OSX Chrome Version 20.0.1132.47 beta.

The only console errors are from the teleport-frame iframe and are about the viewport meta tags: "Viewport argument value "device-width;" for key "width" not recognized. Content ignored." but that shouldn't be halting execution. Let me know if I can do any more testing for ya.

It was doing that to me last night. In my case, I then noticed that using the teleport here buttons on actual Glitch profile pages was also not working. When I refreshed the game, both functioned again.

I find the new website a well-designed and delightful alternative to the HRR discussion forum, which I found awkward and inconvenient for navigation. I have been considering creating a website for the Community Kitchen that would use the API in a similar way, but with some differences in UI due to the different needs of our group.

However, I know that some players will be reluctant to use an external website. While I consider information provided by the API to be intended for such use by design, not all players understand that this is how APIs work. Also, websites can collect information beyond that provided by an API. For example, some hosting services automatically collect individual visitor statistics such as IP address, browser type, operating system, screen resolution, etc.

One way websites deal with such concerns is by including a privacy policy describing what information the website collects, and how that information will and will not be used.

Splendora - that's an excellent point, and even if we can't work out a way to let people participate as members in the routes but also opt-out of using the site, a statement like that would go a long way toward addressing some of the concerns raised above. We'll work on drafting one!

On a different note, I thought I'd point out some of my favourite features of the site!
If you're a route user, you can visit the Routes page and see all of the current routes with summaries of what route-specific resources are available on them. There's also a handy identification for routes that are affiliated with a community system like HRR or SR or MERL. As a way to help spread out traffic more evenly along the route, you can use the "Visit Route" button to be instantly teleported in-game to a random route member's street. Very handy for hopping from route to route! You can also search for routes by name or filter by route resources and compare among the results for the one that best suits your needs.

If you click on a route, the route page has a couple of handy features. First, there is another handy "Visit Route" button as well as a visual representation of the route. If you click on the face icon of any route member, you will be linked to their Glitch profile page. But if what you want is to go to their home street or information about their home street, hover your cursor over their face icon and a tooltip will appear with their name and info about the resources on their street. Click on their name in the tooltip (instead of their face) and you will be linked to their street page in Glitch Housing - which has a handy button that will teleport you in game to their street.
If you like to pick and choose among the streets on a route, or you like to pick up where you left off last time you ran the route, or you just want to peruse the whole list at a glance, scroll down and on the right hand side is a "List View" button. Now you can see the entire route at once, as well as get immediate access to everyone's name - which still links to the Glitch Housing page with a teleport button. You'll also be able to see if there are are any route breakages you'd like to steer clear of.

If you're trying to join a route, the process has been clarified for you considerably. First click the "Join this route" button, and you will be linked to a page with instructions about (a) who to add; and (b) what street resources to add if any changes are necessary. Once your information in the database matches the requirements, you will be added to the route. When your curator next updates their signpost you will be fully linked in, but even before then people can start to visit your street by clicking on your name in the route list. All in all, this in particular is a massive improvement over the old system, which was often overwhelmed by a sudden influx of newcomers.

If you're thinking of starting a new route, do make sure that it doesn't duplicate something that is already there. Or maybe you're thinking about migrating an existing route over. Some routes, like the Freebie Jeebies route, don't have requirements in terms of resources but do have other specific community requirements. Maybe, if you are the curator of one of those routes, you don't want anyone to be able to just join without getting in touch with you first. If that's the case you can set the "maximum number of members" field to zero members, and then you will only be able to add new members manually. You can give instructions on who to contact in order to join in the route description.

New feature: If you're logged in, you can now star routes from the main routes page by using the little star that appears on the right the name of each route.

These routes will now appear at the top of that page, as well as on your own profile page, where you can visit these routes by using the teleport button provided. This will give you a shortcut to any routes you visit frequently. If you're part of any groups on the site, I've automatically added these sites to your starred list.

Also, I've added a simple, step by step guide to creating a route on the site to the original post. Have fun!

I haven't read this whole thread, because the comments are getting long, but I was wondering if maybe you could link from the Route/Directory site over to the Glitch Resources site and back. I think it would be a great, small way to connect the home streets and the outside Ur streets, even if the data aren't integrated.

If you've already linked your two sites and I didn't notice it, then never mind. :)

tl;dr: If you've removed yourself previously from the site, you will have to do this again. Sorry about that.

I've just updated the script to use the API as the data source. This unfortunately meant some changes to the database on the back, which also required a reset of the opt-out table. This means that if you've previously used the delete me button and want to stay out of the database you have to do that again.

The upshot of all these changes is that the site now updates significantly faster. The entire bank of approximately 5.1k players can now be updated in around 4 hours. On the whole I think this is worth the trouble, though there might still be bugs lurking around. If you see any, please let me know and I'll squash them. Thanks.

Hi! Would someone be so kind as to help me get on the Spice Route? I am somewhat inept to understanding how this all works. I truly dislike putting someone in this position LOL but Help!
I know there is a Glitchen out there that will give me a hand.

Thank you from the bottom of my little green heart or is it pink? or what color is our hearts? LOL
you know what I mean : ) thank you.

Instead of using signposts to navigate routes, you can now use teleport, which takes you directly to another player on the route without having to go back to the signpost. When visiting routes in this manner, 20 players are chosen at random, and the order of the players is shuffled. Think of it as a playlist for home streets.

To visit a route in this manner, add /visit to the end of the URL of the route page. For example, here's the Tower Turnpike: resources.grelca.com/route/...

Visit players in the directory by teleport

To make it easier to visit the players you see on the directory, you can now get a list of them to visit just like a route. Twenty players are taken at random out of the top 60 you see on the directory page for the resource. For example, the players with the most metal rocks can be visited here: resources.grelca.com/direct...

Personal Routes

You can now create your own personal route using the same tools that curators have at their disposal. Keep a list of your people who you need to visit or your friends (import feature coming soon!) then run through them using teleport. The mechanism is the same as the above two - shuffled list of 20 random players from the players on the list.

These routes are currently only visible and usable by you (ability to have these visible to others coming soon). You can create your routes here: resources.grelca.com/person...

Recently visited routes and resources

If you're logged in, there's now a triangle beside your name to open up a menu from which you can see a list of recently visited routes and resources, starred routes and personal routes from which you can quickly access.

Updates to routes system

Curators now do not have to be the last player on the route, or even be on the route at all (though it is still highly recommended that you do be on the route). There's now a Leave Route button for those who want to drop out of routes. The page will tell you who to contact so that you don't leave a hole in the route.

I've made search on the Housing site available to browsers, so that you can directly search the database using your browser's search bar. I find this a lot more convenient than using Glitch's own player search function to reach another player's home street.

Route curators get notifications of players joining or leaving their routes. This has been in place for a while now, but I think its a good idea to announce it here since some curators haven't been reading them.

Hi, apologies if this is the wrong place, but I didn't see anywhere else to ask. I'm trying to create a private route of people who have visited me recently, but several of the names are coming up not found. Is this because they've opted out or because they aren't in the database yet or something else? Thanks!

@ Trixie - I have noticed this problem myself. My friends List is so long that i thought it would be easier to find one of my Friends using the Search but she was not found. her two Alts with similar names (all start with the same 5 letters) were there but the name I searched for did not show. Very strange! I did find her as soon as I remembered that I had a key to her house. The Friends Search seems to be either incomplete or just buggie.

Just partially rewrote some of the JavaScript and shifted stuff around. Though I did fix some bugs along the way there's also the possibility that I broke something, so if you see anything broken please do let me know.